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CIA Chief: Iran Could Enrich Uranium to Weapons-grade within Weeks

CIA director William Burns (AP)
CIA director William Burns (AP)
    London, Washington - Asharq Al-Awsat
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CIA Chief: Iran Could Enrich Uranium to Weapons-grade within Weeks

CIA director William Burns (AP)
CIA director William Burns (AP)

CIA director William Burns warned on Sunday that Iran could enrich uranium within weeks to 90 percent, the quantity it needs for a nuclear weapon.

He added that in terms of its missile systems, Iran’s ability to deliver a nuclear weapon, once developed, has also been advancing as well.

In an interview with CBS news that aired on “Face the Nation,” Burns expressed concern about the growing dimensions of Tehran's nuclear program, after reports last week said inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found enriched uranium to a purity of up to 84 percent.

However, the CIA director said Washington does not believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.

Burns said Iran obviously advanced its enrichment programs very far over the past couple of years.

“They've advanced very far to the point where it would only be a matter of weeks before they can enrich to 90 percent, if they chose to cross that line,” he said, adding that also in terms of their missile systems, their ability to deliver a nuclear weapon, once they developed it, has also been advancing as well.

“We don't see evidence that Iran made a decision to resume that weaponization program,” Burns affirmed, adding that the other dimensions of this challenge are growing at a worrisome pace too.

The CIA director was referring to the Amad Project, Iran’s plan to build an atomic warhead that was pursued under the supervision of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's prominent nuclear figure. Tehran said the project was stopped in 2003.

The IAEA had stated in its 2011 report that some work related to the Amad Project continued, indicating the role of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Last Monday, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it had detected uranium enriched to 84 percent purity, which is just 6 percent below the weapons grade purity of 90 percent required for a nuclear weapon.

IAEA said it was discussing the recent results of verification activities with Iran.

Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity since April 2021. Three months ago it started enriching to that level at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons grade is around 90 percent.

Two diplomats told Reuters the IAEA, which inspects Iran's nuclear facilities, had detected uranium enriched to 84%, confirming an initial report late on Sunday by Bloomberg News.

“The issue is whether it was a blip in the reconfigured cascades or deliberate. The agency has asked Iran for an explanation," one of the diplomats told Reuters.

Last Friday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Tehran “has the right to enrich uranium at any rate it wants.”

Iran then tried to respond to international concerns, when it announced on Wednesday the arrival of an IAEA team to the Fordow facility to remove ambiguities about the 84 percent enriched uranium, in tacit confirmation of the validity of what the agency announced.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami said IAEA inspectors had been in Tehran since Tuesday and had started negotiations, visits and checks to resolve “ambiguities created by an inspector.”

Early this month, the UN nuclear watchdog criticised Iran for making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, at its Fordow plant.

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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.

"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.

“These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orban said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.”

Orban cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick... there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday's missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.”

At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.”

He underlined that the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv.

In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six nonnuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a spoeed of Mach 11, it said.

Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad.

The stricken area was cordoned off and out of public view. With no fatalities reported from the attack, Dnipro residents resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential district of Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration said..

Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were stuffed with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.